Happy belated B-day Cal, those are some strong leg extensions. Cues me that your squats are probably all quads and you would need to learn butt and hamstring activation.
just my 2 canadian pennies of course.
Birthdays should always last more than one day! So i’m glad you enjoyed yours to the fullest - you deserve it. Plus its true, you must feed those gorgeous curves 
Nice day back in the gym, Cal! Great to see you doing the handstands again. So much fun!
And Great work on the squats and the extensions. Strong quads indeed!
That’s the thing, Mainy - I feel my glutes more than anything when I do squats. I think the problem is that I don’t recruit the quads much at all.
Usually I run on Sundays (or go to gymnastics) but I’m resting the foot so, instead, upper body day. I hauled my baby (12kg) kettlebell to the gym. It proved a bit light for swings and the like but it’s less hassle to carry in my backpack!
Warm-up: Shoulder/brachialis 'hab (2kg dumbells):
20 lateral raises
20 front raises
20 overhead presses
30 dumbell curls (uh, I zoned out and got carried away)
20 hammer curls
20 L raises
20 bent over raises
Military Press:
Bar x 10
25kg x 10
3 x 30kg x 5
Just easing back into this - my shoulders have been cranky. The 30kg (66lbs) felt easy on the first set but quite tough on the other two. (And why does clenching your buttocks make the weight go up easier? Heh heh).
3 x Supserset:
10 push-ups (shoulder width, elbows in)
20 KB swings (12kg)
KB Snatches: 2 x 20 (alternating arms, so each set was 10 reps per arm)
2 x Superset:
Lat Pulldown, 40kg x 10
Straight Arm Pulldown, 15kg x 10
I’ve done a lot more on the lat pulldown in the past but again, iffy shoulders. Overhead stuff can piss 'em off.
KB Windmills: 5 reps per side (1 set only)
Waiter’s Walk: 20kg, three back and forths across the gym per “set”, 1 set per arm
Vanity Superset:
Tricep rope pushdown: 7.5kg x 20, 10kg x 12, 12.5kg x 10, 15kg x 8
Standing DB curl: 4kg x 20, 6kg x 12, 8kg x 10, 10kg x 8
Did some handstand practise again and then stretching. Made sure I paid attention to shoulders, pecs and upper back. Legs/bum were a bit too DOMSy to stretch too much.
i find that too, with the presses. is that three sets of five reps or five sets of three reps? either way you are beating me on those. i need to get more serious about them but shoulders have been a bit cranky lately.
Three sets of five.
lol. you are lots stronger than me at them, then
My best is 40kg (88lbs) for one but that was several months ago. I need to work back up to that, shoulders allowing.
pretty sure i couldn’t get 40kg. 35kg maybe, but not 40kg. i worked up (on a weird progression of a 5x5): 25kg 1x5, 27.5kg 1x5, 30kg 2x3 or 1x4 - never could get that last bloody rep!, 1x5 27.5kg, 1x5 25kg.
but then i started push-pressing instead for the comp. now… i need to work a bit on ab / glute activation with them and work my way back up. 30kg is more of a single for me now lolz. shoulders get a bit cranky from all the snatching, too, so try and go easy on them.
i will do them more regularly, though. still… i don’t suppose you need to worry about the turtle plodding along behind you
Heh, the only competition I’m in is the one with myself. It’s nice to compare but we’re all so different, everyone has their strengths and weaknesses and everyone is different shapes, sizes and ages.
yeah, so true. i remember reading something on the over 35 forum. can’t remember who said it. someone said something about his lift numbers (which he felt were low) helping others feel better about themselves. someone said ‘your lifts can’t do that. the only lifts that can make me feel better about myself are my own’. so true. it is interesting to compare, yes. but comparisons are indeed pretty meaningless at the end of the day. at least they are given our aims, i guess.
And dear god, we’ve got a sudden heatwave. My flat gets all the afternoon sun so, currently, at 19.48pm, my thermostat is sitting at 27.5 degrees. Tomorrow it’s supposed to hit 32. Buggery.
Cranky shoulders unite! Nice pressing, even if the shoulders were being iffy.
Jealous of your hot weather–it’s rained at least every other day for the past 2 weeks here. So much rain 
We’ve had the same rain. I’ll take that. It’s going to be 32 degrees today and London heat is sticky and gross. My flat gets insanely hot - it was 27.5 yesterday in here and only dropped 1 degree overnight, so it’s still hot this morning. I’d kill for some air con.
For the Americans, 32.5 is just over 81 F (so yes, I was sleeping in that) and 32 is around 90. DO NOT WANT.
that is hot. wish i could send you some of the coldness round here. brr.
Hey, glad to hear things are going as good as they can. And Happy belated Birthday!!!
How did the diet do? (I might have missed that)
Thank you! Well I didn’t lose much and then the birthday derailed it somewhat. I’ve been trying to stay on track since then but I’ve quite a lot to lose. My stomach jiggles a lot when I jump up and down. I guess I’m always going to have a fat arse but the midsection fat bothers me because that is unhealthy fat.
Anyway, some good news. My foot felt good enough to run. It is not quite as hot today as yesterday (it hit 33 degrees yesterday - that’s into the 90s for you US folks - and was 29 in my flat) but it’s still very humid. My flat also retains the heat - it’s still 27.5 this morning so despite the water I’ve been glopping I don’t feel so great. But I put my shoes on and went out. It wasn’t an easy run due to the conditions, but my foot coped OK. I’m quite happy to resume running but I think I’ll have to steer clear of the sprints for now. I’m not entirely sure that it was the sprints - it might have been the rowing I did the day before that because I’ve a suspicion I bend my toes back when I am rowing hard. Or a combination of the two.
It is still not 100% but it’s mild discomfort rather than pain. I will keep an eye on it. If my foot hurts more tomorrow then I’ll have to stay away from running for longer.
Glad your foot is better, so it mine, although mine was just a flesh wound and not actually injured like yours. Yeah I would hold off on anything that would aggravate again.
Yeah I completely get you on the mid section, my arse will always be my arse anyway. I’ve been thinking about losing these 10lbs (although it might be 15 by now), not for aesthetic reasons (I really don’t want to go down that road again as I get a bit manic) but I just feel sluggish, maybe less weight would make my hips feel better, etc. I do have a 14 day program I did over the holidays that worked really well.
I have another motivation - I want to run faster. I’ve felt strong running this year but my times have been slower. I’m blaming the extra 10lbs. If I can get rid of that I think my times will improve. I just need the discipline to stick to my diet because I LOVE food.
Good news and bad news.
The bad news is that the ball of my foot hurts more after the run. It isn’t anywhere like as bad as it was when I first injured it, but it’s definitely a little tender. I guess I will have to leave off the running for a bit longer. Bugger.
The good, in fact, excellent news is that I had my meeting with the head mistress today and I now have a permanent contract at the school. I still have a lot of areas to work on but the fact I have a job to go back to in September is a massive relief. Especially as I happen to like the job. She said the fact she could tell I was committed to the school and liked the school and pupils was what convinced her to offer the permanent contract. So now I just have to work on my skills.